1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a console device that can be mounted on a rack chassis for a server apparatus and has console capabilities of the server apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a rack-mount structure, in which multiple servers are housed in one rack chassis, has been attracting attention, as described in, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,609,034. It is possible to reduce the costs by housing multiple servers onto one rack chassis, because installation space is reduced or the display and mouse are shared. It is also possible to suppress the accident caused by an unplugged cable under the circumstances of tangles of connected cables, so that a stable operation surrounding can be provided.
FIG. 1 shows a common configuration of a rack-mount electronics apparatus. Multiple server apparatuses 200 are mounted on a rack chassis. A console portion 100, namely, a console drawer is mounted in the center of the rack chassis to slide the drawer out from the rack chassis.
In a data center, there are provided a number of the afore-described rack-mount server apparatuses. Generally, one console is installed on one rack-mount system. Therefore, the operator manages and controls the server apparatuses respectively mounted on the rack-mount systems by using the consoles respectively installed in the rack-mount systems.
Assuming that there are 10 rack-mount electronics apparatuses in the data canter and one operator controls and manages the afore-mentioned 10 rack-mount electronics apparatuses. In this case, while the operator is manipulating or managing one of 10 rack-mount electronics apparatuses, the remaining nine consoles are not used and are wasteful.
In addition, assume that there are two rows of 10 rack-mount electronics apparatuses and one operator is assigned to each row. If one of the operators is a malicious one, there is the possibility that the malicious operator illegally accesses an unauthorized electronics device, while the other operator is not present.
Furthermore, a console unit installed for the rack-mount system is generally a KVM device (Keyboard, Video, and Mouse) that processes scan codes of the keyboard, video signals of images or the like, as well as mouse signals. When the server with a serial line connection is mounted on the rack mount system having the afore-mentioned console unit, it is impossible to operate the server with the conventional console unit. In other words, the conventional console unit does not include a port for serial line connection or a signal processor.
To control the server with a serial connection, a notebook PC in which the terminal emulator software is installed has to be brought close to the rack-mount system to connect the notebook PC and the server apparatus with a serial cable.
In this method, two console devices, namely, the console portion and the notebook PC have to be used in the rack-mount system, requiring additional costs.